Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"You are not where you belong", October 4, 2006
Perhaps the real title of David Mamet's incendiary Edmond should perhaps be, careful what you wish for, or even don't vilify certain minority groups because your actions may come back to haunt you. This edgy and provocative film, featuring a truly spectacular performance by William H. Macy, features the cerebral Mamet at his dramatic best.
Here we have the angst-ridden, misogynistic, racist and homophobic male, so pent-up with hidden fury that he's becomes a walking nightmare. He's a bomb waiting to burst as all the years of "being on top" gradually deflate as he trolls through a nighttime labyrinth of crime-ridden streets, alleyways, and strip clubs in New York, just waiting to explode. (Interestingly the movie was actually filmed in Downtown Los Angeles).
Edmond Burke (Macy) is deeply frustrated with is life and work. Tired of being a white-collar robot, he abruptly tells his wife (Rebecca Pidgeon) that he is going to walk out on their marriage because she no longer interests him sexually or spiritually. He's just been to a tarot card reading and the results are not good - murder, blood, mayhem and prison dominate with the dumbfounded psychic telling him, "You are not where you belong."
In a local bar he meets a fellow white-collar worker (Joe Mantegna) directs Edmond to a gentleman's club where he convinces him that what he probably needs is some sex. And in this scene we get the first glimpse of a man who is living on the edge and is easily swayed.
He visits a strip club, a peep show and a massage parlor, where he visits a variety of gorgeous girls including Denise Richards and Mena Suvari, but he's too tight-fisted to part with any money and leaves in a huff or is physically ousted. Back on the street he's preyed on by African-Americans and then arms himself and lashes out, but violence brings him no peace.
He ends up at the apartment of a kindly waitress (Julia Stiles) where wielding a knife, he unleashes a rant, a foul-mouthed tirade against certain minority groups. She freaks out and he resorts to an action where the damage to his life is irreparably done. Edmond's final odyssey finally takes him from the city to a penitentiary where his prejudices come back to haunt him and where he is forced to face all that drove him into his crazy delusions.
Originally written for the stage in 1982, some of the issues may seem a bit dated by today's standards. The idea of pinstriped respectability meeting the - mostly black - urban nihilistic jungle might come across as a bit perfunctory, and even a bit clichéd. Still, the story with its incendiary language and its merciless portrait of a 47-year-old fractured man who embraces his own worst nightmares of racial and sexual suppression is still totally compelling.
Indeed Edmond is a must-see for fans of Bill Macy, who is truly a master at playing this walking time bomb in mild-mannered camouflage. With his ears sticking out from his washed out, blood drained face, he is indeed truly scary. Edmond might be depressing and provocative and even disgusting, but it's also gritty and honest and worth watching for experiencing one of America's best known serious playwrights working in all his unadulterated and uncensored grandeur. Mike Leonard October 06.
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24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Falling Down from the guy that did Re-Animator...., October 3, 2006
Per Amazon..."A man becomes involved in a twisted game of sex, lies and murder with 3 young women."
Not quite, as there's really no game here. This is basically "Falling Down" on acid... and that's a good thing.
Macy turns in a powerhouse, psychotic performance and Mamet's material is full of unexpected scenes that successfully aim to shock.
Of course the biggest shock of all was that B-horror master, Stuart Gordon, directed it.
Try not to watch the trailer to this movie before you see it and you will be in for a disturbing, original viewing experience.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Stinging drama of frustration, lust, and rage, December 2, 2006
It's not hard to say that William Macy's an actor's actor--which means that he can take on virtually any role and do absolute wonders with it. In "Edmond" he's the title character who, at the beginning, walks out on his beautiful, sexy wife (Rebecca Pidgeon), which immediately sets the viewer's mind on edge. It's not only that she's so attractive; it's also the way he phrases his disillusion with her that makes you cringe.
From there things go progressively downhill. We start with Edmond's frustration in his marriage and subsequently understand his lust--which apparently was not being satisfied by his beautiful wife--and, ultimately, his rage. It's rage, in fact, that fuels Edmond throughout the course of the film, through his encounters with three different hookers, a woman on a subway, a waitress, and a pimp on the street. Early on, his rage is also fueled by a man in a bar Edmond goes to; the man is played by Joe Mantegna, who spouts racism and sexism as fluidly and easily as anyone might talk about the weather. And Edmond immediately agrees with everything the man says--not because, as we understand, he really is necessarily racist or sexist, but because he is more than anything else a truly angry person.
Rage makes Edmond lie and kill, and drives him to attempts at lustful encounters with the hookers, all of which end in frustration and non-fulfillment. In this short (under 80 minutes) film, Macy gives a knockout performance as Edmond. This is a one-man show definitely worth seeing.
The ending is a bitterly ironic conclusion to a highly troubled journey that ultimately leaves the viewer either sad or pondering...or perhaps both.
Highly recommended.
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